The administration is asking the current Board of Trustees to rescind the resolution passed last year that keeps Mumford House on its current site and to give all decision making concerning the house back to the administration, which will probably mean Mumford House’s demolition. Their reason is the financial condition of the University of Illinois and the cost of rehabilitation. However, neither the rehabilitation costs have been made public – possibly around $3 million – confirmed by the News-Gazette article on May 11, describing the Mumford House rehab ‘not practical or feasible or even prudent’ nor has the architect’s report on the building and reuse plan about an actual rehabilitation cost).

In actuality, the current, 2009, the Board of Trustees resolution does not mention rehabilitating the house immediately (or, in fact, at all). It just requires the house to remain on site and directs that a plan for its use be done. That is all. Neither does it not give a timetable for rehabilitation nor the use of UI funds. Therefore, we are asking that the resolution stand and that the house be “mothballed” until financial conditions improve. A Mumford House Foundation could be established to fund raise for the rehabilitation – something that the UI has not bothered to form.